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Posted (edited)

I never buy magazines but a friend recently loaned me ‘HiFi News, Oct 2011, so I’ve been idly browsing the advertisements. And am delighted to discover that there seems to be absolutely no mundane, run-of-the-mill kit currently in production! Everything is truly superlative.

Here are a few hackneyed / flowery phrases, in no particular order. Is there a thesaurus for hifi advertising scriptwriters?

“The NEW Mythical (?) stereo tube amplifiersâ€

“Powerful, dynamic and detailedâ€

“Bespoke Class D technologyâ€

“Crystal clear sound, always bubbling with engaging musical detailâ€

“Beautiful to behold, delicious to hearâ€

“Modern Classicâ€

“Wonderfully open and dynamic soundâ€

“Punches above its weightâ€

“Holistic approach to audio designâ€

“Offering the integrity of musical performanceâ€

“Awe inspiring award winningâ€

“Exceptional detail, resolution and uncoloured performanceâ€

“Amazingly close to true natural soundâ€

“Spectacular in its three-dimensionality and explosive dynamic swingsâ€

“Each listening reveals a genuine insight into the artist and sessionâ€

“Resonating with signature clarity and realismâ€

“A new standard of excellence for its classâ€

“Took my breath awayâ€

“Effortless power deliveryâ€

“Open presentation with airy space, seamless depth and precise imagingâ€

“Flowing organic rhythmsâ€

“Push the performance envelopeâ€

“No compromise designâ€

Which just goes to illustrate that the hyperbole hasn’t really evolved much at all over the past 40 years. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Edited by robin-hobart
Posted (edited)

My. I guess that it is not their fault, in a way. It is called "confirmation bias" - they believe it is good, and therefore cannot be objective.. If I wrote copy for an ad, I'd love to say something like "no superlatives can adequately describe the sound of this kit". Just to cut through the BS. Someone may already have done it, bless them.

Just don't tell the public that the writer maybe profoundly deaf but with a vivid (albeit Gen Y cliched) imagination. Which is actually not funny - saw a late night doco on SBS and a deaf man was happy to contribute his handclapping to a church choir.

Nice doggie pic!

Edited by Lloyd
Posted (edited)

Good thread this one.

Every time I read a review these days I am unsure if I am reading a sporting column, an engineering manual, a paid political party announcement or the minutes of a company board meeting.

"The resulting sound was well above the class average and the sound overwhelmed the listeners with a mighty punch of sheer drive and visceral impact"

"This amplifier competes with my reference which costs considerably more"

"its sins were definitely not those of commission and merely those of a slight omission"

"In the light of its intended market it can be considered to outpace all its rivals and certainly had the feet tapping"

"Massively over engineered power supplies are rarely seen in this class"

"Punches way beyond and above its weight and would shame many well known names at 5 times the price"

"It was not as good as my reference, but that could be expected given the modest price"

"Although it was vinyl wrapped it fooled many of the listening panel who enthusiastically praised its aesthetics and it would have wide domestic appeal.

Edited by rantan
  • Like 1
Posted

What's worse is when the reviewer waffles on and on about say the history of the manufacturer, then on and on about the connections or operation of the unit but gives scant description of the sonic signature. And then maybe two or three sentences in the last paragraph and that's it.

  • Like 1
Posted

A good point Milo.

There is a good example of this with the 6 moons reviewof the WLM Diva speakers.

Don't get me wrong here, these are great speakers by any standards, but the prologue to the actual listening impressions was more like a history of the company and its design philosophies. There is nothing wrong with that per se but I thought it was way over the top and somewhat obsequious.

Posted

Anyone remember the Dudley Moore movie from(whenever...early 90s, late 80's?) about advertising I think and he penned the ad for Volvo: They're Boxy But They're Good!

Says it all really.

The latest 'Australian HiFi' mag arrived in my tin can today and I always look forward to it to be honest; it has audio porn in it and the missus has just never twigged on that :D

Sure there's a lot of reviewer hyperbole, a lot of sympathetic advertorial treatments, a lack of any sort of commitment to actual Australian Hi-Fi( ;) ) manufacturers and toilers unless they're advertising with them(see point 2) but...I honestly don't mind because I reckon between SNA+the Interwebby, I can work out what I need and hopefully sort through the chaff as the OP has highlighted and other respondents to this thread.

I like looking at the ad for "USA-The Legend Is Back!" Bob Carver tube amps and I immediately think of Earle's amps and are they as good or ( maybe) better than Bob's and his full page colour advert in Aus HiFi?

I love looking at the esoterica (the real porn!), I love seeing the B+W announcements about 2 months after everyone at SNA knew about them and plenty of other things too.

It's better than no mag at all I guess, yeah the take on the Munich Show has already been covered by the overseas mags much earlier but then I've never heard or seen a 'Colorfly(much as it hurts me to type color not colour) and the picture of it is appreciated (well the back at least, the front is awful, very 80's...chunky)

Everything is 'world class!', everything is going to make you; "fall back in love" (not unless you rewind me back to when I played footy and she liked a drink after it..lol), 'Listen to what the pro's listen too' because they have more finely attuned ears than your current ones, and of course everything is 'specialist' and the 'ultimate' and everything is of the future and of the retro past...

I enjoy it all ...yes I do :)

Posted

Anyone remember the Dudley Moore movie from(whenever...early 90s, late 80's?) about advertising I think and he penned the ad for Volvo: They're Boxy But They're Good!

Ah, Volvo.

What was that old spoof advertisement? Something like

Designed by experts

Engineered by computers

Built by robots

Tested by lasers

So why

oh why

Are they driven by idiots?

PS: I had a 240 for 20 years!

Posted

Had a 264SL, a 740SL, a 740turbo, a 850 turbo wagon, a S70 Wagon and then went over to the darkside and started buying Hondas. And yeah i wear hats while driving+beanies :D

Posted

I also had a 740 briefly (for the period when Keating knocked out negative gearing), and an 850 even more briefly. The latter having the hardest suspension of any car I've ever owned. Kept it exactly 6 weeks.

Then went to Subaru Foresters - with very mixed, but always expensive, results.

Posted

Had/have a Honda Euro Luxury, absolutely lovely car and a deserved winner for many years of various mid-size four sedans(and have never experienced a problem yet)...mind you I always felt safe in my 2 tonnes of Swedish steel.

  • Volunteer
Posted

Had a 264SL, a 740SL, a 740turbo, a 850 turbo wagon, a S70 Wagon and then went over to the darkside and started buying Hondas. And yeah i wear hats while driving+beanies :D

My current car is the 850 turbo wagon!

Posted

Only on SNA could a thread about audio advertising end up being about bloody Volvo Drivers :lol:

  • Like 3
  • Volunteer
Posted

They are probably all using the same buzzword generator. I can't seem to find one specifically for audio advertising buzzwords, but this Corporate Gibberish one looks like fun. Just enter the name of your favourite audio brand and see what pops up. :cool:

http://www.andrewdavidson.com/gibberish/

It's full of MBA speak

Posted (edited)

I think that we need to sit down and wrap our heads around this. It is a paradigm shift and a win win situation. Maybe we could go back a step and touch base later after we have sharpened our pencils and thought outside the box at a high level of analysis. At the end of the day we need to go forward on this initiative.

Edited by Lloyd
  • Like 2
Posted

Sounds like a Real Estate Agent, full of bullshi*

Spot on - Vendors expect nothing less - they want top dollar. As a real estate agent for 22 years I at least understand their lexicon!

Introducing the latest speaker from Average Joe Hifi. It's about as good as all the rest, as long as none of them are on special.

Hmmm. Lacks a certain panache doesn't it. Doesn't quite transmit that subliminal 'rush out and buy' compulsion.

Only on SNA could a thread about audio advertising end up being about bloody Volvo Drivers :lol:

The joy of free association!

Perhaps there's a connection? Maybe SNA members are closet Volvo admirers?

Posted

LOL, yeah a friend was showing me a shoot-out of speaker cables in some hifi mag' last week, and browsing through it, not only the adverts had me raise an eyebrow often.

It was also the reviews that not only had me raising an eyebrow, but also shaking my head :wacko:

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